The present invention relates to a data communication apparatus and communication control method and, more specifically, to a facsimile apparatus which can connect a plurality of lines or data channels, and its communication control method or the like.
A conventional facsimile apparatus as one of data communication apparatuses has one and only line connection control means for connecting a line, or cannot simultaneously transmit an identical image file to a plurality of destinations even when it has a plurality of line connection control means.
In order to simultaneously transmit an identical image file to more than one destination, a switch fabric, e.g., subscription to a store and forward switching service, other than the facsimile main body must be used.
For this reason, in case of multicast transmission for transmitting a single original image to a plurality of destinations, when the facsimile apparatus has only one line connection control means, it can perform only sequential multicast transmission for transmitting that image in turn to the individual destinations, and the time corresponding to the number of destinations is required until the image is transmitted to all the destinations.
Even when the facsimile apparatus can be connected to a line such as an ISDN network having a plurality of information channels, since it performs similar sequential multicast transmission, this results in similar disadvantages.
In order to use an external store and forward switching service, another resource is necessary, and cost and labor are required to achieve the objective.
The present invention has been made to solve the above-mentioned problem, and has as its object to provide a data communication apparatus and communication control method, which can improve communication efficiency since a plurality of line tasks use common management information upon simultaneously transmitting identical data to a plurality of destinations.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a data communication apparatus and communication control method, which can automatically abort communications via a plurality of lines when the user instructs to abort communications during multicast transmission.
Other objects of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
In order to achieve the above objects, according to the present invention, there is provided a data communication apparatus wherein a plurality of line control means, prepared in units of lines, independently make data transmission with reference to transmission management means commonly used by the plurality of line control means upon simultaneously transmitting identical data to a plurality of destinations.
According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication control method wherein a communication control task includes at least a communication management task and a plurality of line control tasks prepared in units of communication lines, and control operations executed by the plurality of line control tasks independently and simultaneously transmit identical data to a plurality of destinations using management information generated by the communication management task.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a communication control method comprising: the step of detecting a plurality of destinations of data; the step of informing a plurality of line control tasks of management information; the step of detecting completion of communications by the plurality of line control tasks; and the step of deleting a transmission data file upon completion of the communications.
Other features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the figures thereof.